Text 4

　　The great recession may be over, but this era of high joblessness is probably beginning. Before it ends,it will likely change the life course and character of a generation of young adults. And ultimately, it is likely to reshape our politics,our culture, and the character of our society for years.

　　No one tries harder than the jobless to find silver linings in this national economic disaster. Many said that unemployment, while extremely painful, had improved them in some ways; they had become less materialistic and more financially prudent; they were more aware of the struggles of others. In limited respects, perhaps the recession will leave society better off. At the very least, it has awoken us from our national fever dream of easy riches and bigger houses, and put a necessary end to an era of reckless personal spending.

　　But for the most part, these benefits seem thin, uncertain, and far off. In The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth, the economic historian Benjamin Friedman argues that both inside and outside the U.S. ,lengthy periods of economic stagnation or decline have almost always left society more mean-spirited and less inclusive, and have usually stopped or reversed the advance of rights and freedoms. Anti-immigrant sentiment typically increases, as does conflict between races and classes.

　　Income inequality usually falls during a recession, but it has not shrunk in this one,. Indeed, this period of economic weakness may reinforce class divides, and decrease opportunities to cross them--- especially for young people. The research of Till Von Wachter, the economist in Columbia University, suggests that not all people graduating into a recession see their life chances dimmed: those with degrees from elite universities catch up fairly quickly to where they otherwise would have been if they had graduated in better times; it is the masses beneath them that are left behind.

　　In the internet age, it is particularly easy to see the resentment that has always been hidden winthin American society. More difficult, in the moment , is discerning precisely how these lean times are affecting society’s character. In many respects, the U.S. was more socially tolerant entering this resession than at any time in its history, and a variety of national polls on social conflict since then have shown mixed results. We will have to wait and see exactly how these hard times will reshape our social fabric. But they certainly it, and all the more so the longer they extend.

　　36.By saying “to find silver linings”(Line 1,Para.2)the author suggest that the jobless try to___.

　　[A]seek subsidies from the govemment

　　[B]explore reasons for the unermployment

　　[C]make profits from the troubled economy

　　[D]look on the bright side of the recession

　　37.According to Paragraph 2,the recession has made people_____.

　　[A]realize the national dream

　　[B]struggle against each other

　　[C]challenge their lifestyle

　　[D]reconsider their lifestyle

　　38.Benjamin Friedman believe that economic recessions may_____.

　　[A]impose a heavier burden on immigrants

　　[B]bring out more evils of human nature

　　[C]Promote the advance of rights and freedoms

　　[D]ease conflicts between races and classes

　　39.The research of Till Von Wachther suggests that in recession graduates from elite universities tend to _____.

　　[A]lag behind the others due to decreased opportunities

　　[B]catch up quickly with experienced employees

　　[C]see their life chances as dimmed as the others’

　　[D]recover more quickly than the others

　　40.The author thinks that the influence of hard times on society is____.

　　[A]certain

　　[B]positive

　　[C]trivial

　　[D]destructive

　　Part B

　　Directions:

　　Read the following text and answer the questions by finding information from the left column that corresponds to each of the marked details given in the right column. There are two extra choices in the right column. Mark your answers on ANSWER SHEERT 1.(10 points)

　　“Universal history, the history of what man has accomplished in this world, is at bottom the History of the Great Men who have worked here,” wrote the Victorian sage Thomas Carlyle. Well, not any more it is not.

　　Suddenly, Britain looks to have fallen out with its favourite historical form. This could be no more than a passing literary craze, but it also points to a broader truth about how we now approach the past: less concerned with learning from forefathers and more interested in feeling their pain. Today, we want empathy, not inspiration.

　　From the earliest days of the Renaissance, the writing of history meant recounting the exemplary lives of great men. In 1337, Petrarch began work on his rambling writing De Viris Illustribus – On Famous Men, highlighting the virtus (or virtue) of classical heroes. Petrarch celebrated their greatness in conquering fortune and rising to the top. This was the biographical tradition which Niccolo Machiavelli turned on its head. In The Prince, the championed cunning, ruthlessness, and boldness, rather than virtue, mercy and justice, as the skills of successful leaders.

　　Over time, the attributes of greatness shifted. The Romantics commemorated the leading painters and authors of their day, stressing the uniqueness of the artist's personal experience rather than public glory. By contrast, the Victorian author Samual Smiles wrote Self-Help as a catalogue of the worthy lives of engineers , industrialists and explores . "The valuable examples which they furnish of the power of self-help, if patient purpose, resolute working and steadfast integrity, issuing in the formulation of truly noble and many character, exhibit,"wrote Smiles."what it is in the power of each to accomplish for himself"His biographies of James Walt, Richard Arkwright and Josiah Wedgwood were held up as beacons to guide the working man through his difficult life.

　　This was all a bit bourgeois for Thomas Carlyle, who focused his biographies on the truly heroic lives of Martin Luther, Oliver Cromwell and Napoleon Bonaparte. These epochal figures represented lives hard to imitate, but to be acknowledged as possessing higher authority than mere mortals.

　　Communist Manifesto. For them, history did nothing, it possessed no immense wealth nor waged battles:“It is man, real, living man who does all that.” And history should be the story of the masses and their record of struggle. As such, it needed to appreciate the economic realities, the social contexts and power relations in which each epoch stood. For:“Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly found, given and transmitted from the past.”

　　This was the tradition which revolutionized our appreciation of the past. In place of Thomas Carlyle, Britain nurtured Christopher Hill, EP Thompson and Eric Hobsbawm. History from below stood alongside biographies of great men. Whole new realms of understanding — from gender to race to cultural studies — were opened up as scholars unpicked the multiplicity of lost societies. And it transformed public history too: downstairs became just as fascinating as upstairs.